Crypto Regulations In Focus At Davos 2023

Crypto Regulations: Regulators and bankers may not always agree, but they were able to come together in Davos on the issues of regulating digital assets market and cryptocurrencies.

Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam of Singapore and Francois Villeroy de Galhau, a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, both stressed the necessity of crypto regulation during a panel discussion on the difficulties facing banks. UBS Group AG Chairman Colm Kelleher echoed their points.

Regulators had “taken their eye off the ball with respect to the non-banking industry,” according to Kelleher. He started the discussion on digital assets.

Demand for regulating non-banking sector

Villeroy reacted, citing recent instances of financial instability such as the performance of money market funds, UK pension funds affected by liability-driven investments, and the demise of Sam’s Club, saying that the banks are the most challenging in today’s times.

Villeroy siad that they all share the trait of being connected to institutions other than banks and they fall short in this aspect. He added the changing landscape as the reason and called for a quick action to enact non-bank regulation, starting with cryptocurrency.

Some things were extremely evident to Tharman, for example, whether it’s regular finance or cryptocurrency, needs to regulated for things like money laundering.

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Kelleher claims blockchain as “unstoppable”

Kelleher reaffirmed a sentiment that has been expressed frequently by executives of both traditional banking institutions and cryptocurrency businesses. Regarding certain UBS clients’ desire to invest in digital tokens, he added,

“We are searching for a regulatory structure that will allow us to accommodate it for our clients.”

While sounding a note of caution about the current challenge of assuring compliance with laws and policies surrounding KYC (know-your-customer) standards and AML (anti-money laundering) rules, he was bullish about the underlying technology of the blockchain and characterised it as unstoppable.

CEO of Citigroup, Jane Fraser interrupted saying that it was critical to take a step back. He said rather than discussing cryptocurrency they should discuss on other issues, claiming it as something that is potentially less new and shiny. Thus, the discussion for crypto ended.

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